stm32-installer

Installs NimaLTD embedded C libraries into an STM32 project.

Copying two files into a project is easy. Doing it so the build actually picks them up, without clobbering the settings you changed last month, is the part this handles.

Every command below uses example as the library name. Put the real one in its place.

Installing a library

There are three ways to run it. They all do the same thing, and they all take the same arguments.

With pip

Install the installer once. This needs internet:

pip install stm32-installer

Then, from the root of your STM32 project:

stm32-installer nimaltd/example

To update it later, pip install --upgrade stm32-installer. To remove it, pip uninstall stm32-installer.

A library can need a newer installer than the one you have. It then says so and changes nothing:

Error: This library needs stm32-installer 1.2.0 or newer, and this one is 1.1.1. Nothing was changed.
Update it with:
    pip install --upgrade stm32-installer

Run without pip, the installer is fetched fresh every time, so it is always the newest.

Without pip

One line, straight from the web. Nothing is installed on your machine, and nothing is saved that you would have to delete afterwards.

Windows, PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nimaltd/stm32-installer/main/install.py | python - nimaltd/example

Windows, Command Prompt:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nimaltd/stm32-installer/main/install.py | python - nimaltd/example

Linux and macOS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nimaltd/stm32-installer/main/install.py | python3 - nimaltd/example

The installer is fetched into a temporary folder, run, and deleted. Everything after the - goes to it, so a zip, a folder and every option below work here exactly as they do with the pip command.

PowerShell needs irm rather than curl, because curl there is an alias for a different command that does not understand those options.

Without internet

On any machine that has internet, download two zips, from the green Code button, Download ZIP: this repository, and the library. Copy both to the machine that has none, then from your project:

python stm32-installer-main/install.py D:/Downloads/example-master.zip

install.py sees the installer sitting beside it and runs that copy, so it never goes online.

pip cannot do this on its own. Even given the zip, it goes online to fetch the tools it builds the package with.

What to install

The one argument can be any of these:

A bare name like example means nimaltd/example on GitHub, unless a folder of that name exists where you run it, in which case the folder is used. A path that does not exist is reported as missing rather than looked up on GitHub, so a typo in D:/Downloads/... gets a straight answer.

The zip does not need unpacking first. If you did unpack it with Windows' Extract All, which puts example-master inside another example-master, either folder works.

Options

--ref holds a project on one release, which is useful when you need exactly what you built with last time:

stm32-installer nimaltd/example --ref 2.0.0          # a tag
stm32-installer nimaltd/example --ref develop        # a branch
stm32-installer nimaltd/example --ref 00949e695e16   # an exact commit

Where the files go

From GitHub, from a zip, or from a folder outside your project, the files the library's library.yml lists are copied into a folder of your project. Nothing else comes with them, so the library's tests never reach your build. The zip or folder you gave is left exactly as it was.

A folder already inside your project becomes the library where it stands. The header and source move to its top, your config file is created, and everything that belongs to the repository rather than your firmware is removed from it, the test folder above all. --dir does not apply here, since the folder is already where it is going. Rename it first if you want it called something else.

The folder question

Without --dir, you are asked where the library should go:

Folder to install into [example]:

Press Enter for the default. Run the one line way, the question still reaches you: the answer is read from the console, because the installer itself is arriving on the input. In a script or on a build server, where nobody is there to answer, the default is taken without asking, rather than waiting for ever.

Updating a library

Run the same command again. The code is replaced, and your example_config.h is kept, because it is yours:

Files
  written example/example.h
  written example/example.c
  kept    example/example_config.h  not overwritten

This was an update. Code replaced, your configuration kept.

What you see

A first install from a downloaded zip, into a CubeMX project that builds with both CMake and STM32CubeIDE:

Reading example-master.zip ...

example 2.0.0
What this library does, in one line
middleware / system

Files
  written example/example.h
  written example/example.c
  written example/LICENSE.md
  written example/NOTICE
  written example/README.md
  created example/example_config.h  yours to edit

Project
  updated CMake  Added example to CMakeLists.txt, linked to ${CMAKE_PROJECT_NAME}.
          backup: CMakeLists.txt.20260923-193649.bak
  updated STM32CubeIDE  Added example to the include path and source folders in .cproject.
          Refresh the project in CubeIDE (F5) so it picks up the new files.
          backup: .cproject.20260923-193649.bak

Done. #include "example.h" and you are away.

The first line says where the library came from: Fetching nimaltd/example ... from GitHub, Reading ... from a zip or a folder. Run without pip, it starts with Fetching the installer ... first.

What it does for you

Finds your IDE and wires the library in. CMake, STM32CubeIDE, Keil MDK and IAR are all handled, and a project can be more than one of them at once.

Never overwrites your configuration. example_config.h is created once. Reinstall as often as you like: the code is replaced, your settings are not.

Leaves the file looking like you wrote it. An added line copies the indentation, the line ending and the path separator of the lines around it. These files go into version control, so a correct edit that shows up as a whole file diff is still a bad edit.

Keeps your CMakeLists.txt short. Your project gets two lines that never change, and the library's file list lives with the library:

# >>> stm32-installer: example >>>
add_subdirectory(example)
target_link_libraries(${CMAKE_PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE example_lib)
# <<< stm32-installer: example <<<

The target is called example_lib rather than example, because a project is often named after the library being tried out in it and CMake allows only one target per name. The PRIVATE keyword is dropped when your project links its libraries without one, since CMake refuses to mix the two forms.

The generated example/CMakeLists.txt declares an INTERFACE target, not a STATIC one. That matters: an INTERFACE target hands its sources to whoever links it, so they are compiled as part of your application and inherit its defines and include paths. That is what lets a driver's .c file find main.h and the HAL headers. A STATIC library would not see them and would fail to compile.

Backs up before editing. Every project file is copied to a timestamped .bak first. If the file is not one it recognises, it changes nothing and prints what to click instead.

Edits the project, not a copy of it. IAR leaves a Backup of <name>.ewp beside the real project when it upgrades one, and that copy is a valid project file whose name sorts first. The workspace file is asked which project is the real one, and backups are skipped.

Keeps the repository out of your build. CubeIDE compiles every .c under your project, and a library repository ships a test suite with its own main(). Left in place, that breaks your build with an error that points nowhere useful. So only the listed files are copied, and a repository that sits inside your project has everything else removed from it.

Tells you what the library needs. It reads your stm32xxxx_hal_conf.h and .ioc and warns before you hit a confusing compile error:

Requirements
  check   HAL SPI module is not enabled
          Uncomment HAL_SPI_MODULE_ENABLED in stm32f4xx_hal_conf.h
  ok      GPIO is configured
  check   This library needs an RTOS and none was found
          It expects freertos. Enable it in CubeMX under Middleware.

It cannot switch a peripheral on for you. The .ioc belongs to CubeMX, and editing it behind CubeMX's back goes wrong quietly.

For someone writing a library

Put a library.yml at the root of the repository.

name: example
description: What this library does, in one line
repository: https://github.com/nimaltd/example
license: Apache-2.0

kind: middleware        # driver, middleware, rtos, protocol, filesystem, utility, bsp
category: system        # sensor, storage, display, communication, wireless,
                        # rtos, timing, power, input, math, system

provides: []            # what this gives other libraries. An RTOS says [rtos]

requires:
  installer: 1.1.0      # the oldest stm32-installer that reads this file
  libraries: []         # other NimaLTD libraries, by name
  hal: true
  cmsis: true
  rtos: none            # none, optional, any, freertos, cmsis-os2, threadx
  hal_modules: [spi]    # must be enabled in stm32xxxx_hal_conf.h
  peripherals:
    - type: spi
      count: 1
      note: Master mode, 8 bit
  c_standard: c11

install:
  layout: flat          # flat (default) puts every file at the top of the
                        # folder, so one include path covers the library.
                        # mirror keeps the repository's own folders, for a
                        # library too big to flatten sensibly.

files:
  headers:
    - src/example.h           # listed first: the one "#include" is printed for
    - src/port/*.h            # a wildcard, matched the way a shell would
  sources:
    - src/example.c
    - from: src/port/spi.c    # a file can say exactly where it goes, which
      to: port/spi.c          # overrides the layout for that one file

once:                   # copied once, then it belongs to the user
  - from: src/example_config.h
  - from: src/example_port.c  # a .c starter works the same way
    to: my_port.c             # "to" only when the name should change

extras:                 # copied as they are, no compiling
  - LICENSE.md          # LICENSE.md and NOTICE are the default, so this
  - NOTICE              # section can be left out entirely
  - README.md
  - docs                # a folder, copied whole and keeping its shape

There is no version in it. The installer reads the version from the @version tag in the file comment of the first header listed, so it is written in the code and nowhere else:

/**
 * @file        example.h
 * @version     2.0.0
 */

requires.installer is the oldest stm32-installer that reads the file correctly. It is checked before anything else in the file is read, so when a manifest starts using something only a newer installer understands, raising this makes an older one stop with a message saying to update, rather than read the file wrongly without a word. Write it as three numbers, 1.1.0: unquoted, YAML reads 1.10 as the decimal number 1.1, and that is refused.

A file listed under once is copied only when it is missing, so the user's own edits survive every update. It keeps its own name unless you give it a to.

The key says what happens rather than what the file is. It is usually a configuration header, but the same rule fits a port layer someone fills in, or a table they tune: anything that is the library's to start and theirs from then on.

One catch worth knowing: #include "x.h" searches the including file's own folder before any include path, so a config sitting beside the header that includes it will always win. That is fine when the library's tests use the same config, and it is why the tests in these libraries are written against EXAMPLE_MAX_TASKS rather than a fixed number.

The include path follows the layout on its own: flat gives the library folder, mirror gives wherever the headers landed. Add install.include_dirs only when that guess is wrong.

Three things about this that are easy to get wrong:

A .c template is a source. If you ship a port layer as src/example_port.c that lands as my_port.c, it is added to the build like any other source. Leaving it out would fail at link time with undefined references and no clue why.

kind: rtos implies provides: [rtos]. A library that is an operating system satisfies another library's RTOS requirement, whether or not you remembered to write it down.

LICENSE.md and NOTICE travel with the code. The Apache licence requires it, and the NOTICE file is what carries your attribution into someone else's product. They are never removed during cleanup.

That is everything the repository needs. There is no installer script to copy in: put the install lines from the top of this page in your README, with your library's name in them.

If you maintain your own libraries with a fork of this tool, change SOURCE near the top of install.py in your fork to point at your fork, and use your fork's address in those lines.

Running the tests

python test/run_tests.py

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.